Superconductivity in transparent zinc-doped In2O3 films having low carrier density

Abstract

Thin polycrystalline zinc-doped indium oxide (In2O3–ZnO) films were prepared by post-annealing amorphous films with various weight concentrations x of ZnO in the range 0≤x ≤0.06. We have studied the dependences of the resistivity ρ and Hall coefficient on temperature T and magnetic field H in the range 0.5≤T ≤300 K, H≤6 Tfor 350 nm films annealed in air. Films with 0≤x≤0.03 show the superconducting resistive transition. The transition temperature Tc is below 3.3 K and the carrier density n is about 1025–1026 m−3. The annealed In2O3–ZnO films were examined by transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction analysis revealing that the crystallinity of the films depends on the annealing time. We studied the upper critical magnetic field Hc2 (T) for the film with x = 0.01. From the slope of dHc2 /dT, we obtain the coherence length ξ (0) ≈ 10 nm at T = 0 K and a coefficient of electronic heat capacity that is small compared with those of other oxide materials.

Keywords

• transparent thin films
• carrier density
• electrical resistivity
• annealing effect
• superconductivity